Markface's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Swarm: Survival]

Simple

You've taken a seemingly simple design and added a few features to it. While a lot of other game makers could of been lazy and just left it to a simple point and click, you've gone a step further to make it less repetitive, good job.

I like the track of score, really builds up a level of competitiveness in the game, even if it's just against myself. I enjoy the implementation of health, a lot of games like this are very harsh in the sense that it's one hit one kill, you've gone out of your way to give us a chance to fight of the swarm, and closer enemies.

The visuals are very, very simple. But with a game like this they don't need to be so special. Maybe a background to play on would be nice? But I understand a blank background would mean players wouldn't get distracted as often.

It's a fun way to kill time, the only real downside to this I could see would be the constant barrage of advertisements. Other than that, good work.

benolds responds:

Thanks for the feedback, I really do appreciate it.

And I just took out the extra ads from when ever you lose :)

[Pirate Golf Adventure]

Pirate adventure... fooooooore.

This was great, a wonderful change to the average golf game.

Not only was this incredibly addictive, but it was also captivating in the level of progression. Including a story line to the game made it more interesting, a step above the average golf game where you just go from hole to hole.

The controls were great, I was a little confused by my ability to hit a golf ball whilst in mid air, but getting onto the harder stages it's easy to see why that feature was included. I love creativeness and interactivity of your environment as well. It really feels like the world you're playing in is your private golf course.

The inclusion of medals and a scoring system only fueled me to be more daring with my shots, making this game a lot more entertaining. There was a good feel of achievement after every quick hole or couple of chips in, which is great.

Good work.

[World cup soccer!]

Could of been better

At first the game looked like it would of been pretty good. But after 5 minutes or so of playing I really noticed it's mediocracy. While the visuals weren't amazing none of it's faults came from that, it was all in the gameplay.

First off, the AI is difficult. Not in an enjoyable way, but more of a perfect opponent sort of way. There is no faults, they don't muck up. You can never score a lucky goal on their failures. This plays a big part to soccer and should of been including in this game. AI faults.

I would of liked a marker to indicate which character I was controlling. There was also no way to change which character I was in control of, which made goalkeeping a desperate last second reach, which usually didn't work.

The scoring was a little odd. It's soccer, you only need 1 point per goal scored. After 2 goals from my opponent they were on a score of 7, which confused me.

All in all, this could of been fun and addictive, but a selection of little faults just outweighed my enjoyment.

[Pong keep ups]

Paddle and ball, hot damn

This was surprisingly fun. It's an easy enough idea, just hit the ball in the air as many times as you can... but it's never really been done in a game before. This is the sort of thing you do with 5 minutes to spare and a lot of boredom, you've managed to bring that level of addiction into a flash game.

The game looked great, simple enough to do that, mind you. The animation was smooth and didn't distract me from the real task of the game, which was great. Great how you kept track of my high score from me, it ensured a weird level of competition with myself.

Not much more to comment on as the game really isn't all that much. Doesn't mean it isn't good, though.

[Frog Batting]

Faulty

This game simply felt faulty. The likeliness of hitting the frogs, no matter the timing, was small. There was no variation to the batters swing, or options for power or speed, it made the game feel very forced, as if all lack of option had been taken away from the player.

The visuals were horrible, static lined block figures swinging and jumping. There wasn't a smooth transition when bringing in new frogs to hit. Everything was repetitive.

There's no satisfaction in this game either. If you hit the frog once, you've done it one thousand times, really. There's no change in the gameplay depending on your success other than the end titles says your score is a little different.

I know this was made for 2002, but people knew how to draw back then too. This had little to no effort in it.

[Free Board]

Addictive

This was actually really fun. Nostalgic in the fact that it looked like a more slick, stylish version of Ski-Free. I seriously expected the abdominal snowman to come out and eat me in this.

The gameplay was great, hard at times and a little tricky to get used to. But that was just homage to the players skill, pushing them further and further to get in the game, see how far they can go, and how far they've progressed.

I enjoyed free mode, something about the ability to jump over 300m of trees at the fastest speed was fun. The time attack mode was very well thought out too, very tricky at times but that just made it all the more enjoyable.

The game was simple and that's all it had to be, good work.

[Gavin the Golf Goblin 2.5]

Blocky, slow

I can feel that you tried, but the true excitement of this game has been lost. You've created a slow, blocky and repetitive environment for this game, the complete opposite of what a good action game should be.

I like how you've incorporated the golf side of things in, it certainly makes teeing off a lot more interesting. But damn near all gameplay between each hit is dull. The repetitive use of the same characters to attack were obvious, the environment was poorly detailed and the character was blocky and irritating to control.

Doing this repetitively over a space of time just spells boredom to me.

[Collapse It]

That is one angry sun...

Wonderful. I absolutely loved this game.

The game was strong in all senses. Addictive, creative and a solid effort. The gameplay is what stood out strongest to me. Not only was this a real piece of fun in the crazy animated violence, but the physics were insanely fun to muck about with.

You've not only done a great job with the rag-doll effects, but you've also managed to use the whole environment around you as a personal death pit, and you've done it well. It had a very cartoony feel to it, which was supported well by your art and animation.

Simple, nothing too advance. It kept the game focused on the gameplay and not smoke and mirrors, something usually done by other games of a similar nature.

The only downsides to this game as so few from far they don't matter. It's a little bit easy, yes. But I didn't play this game for a challenge, I just played it to kill.

Good work.

[Kill the Ghost]

Dull, boring, pointless

There's no level of gratification from this game, the point system is apparent but there's no justification for it, other than to keep track of your clicking.

The ghosts feel incredibly tweened, crudely drawn and repetitive. With no apparent change in characters, the game loses continuity, which in this game is at a low.

The sound is repetitive, if you're doing the one action again and again you need to change visual and auditory configurations to make it a little more exciting.

This isn't a game, it's a waste of time. I hope your MMORPG shares no resemblence to this.

[Power Puzzle 2]

Deceptively tricky, painfully addictive

Also, a complete fucking pain at times. None the less, the game was fun to play.

The concept was simple enough, that's what threw me off when it progressively became more difficult. With subtle implementation of useless pipes and simplistic looking maps, you've made a seriously deceptive game here.

Visually this game isn't very expansive. But really, that's not the point of this. At no point am I thrown away from the puzzle to admire the visual concept of the game, I'm too absorbed with the task at hand. If anything, keeping the game simple and distraction free made it easier to concentrate. Menu and title screens are minimal in a clever, sophisticated way. The game feels smooth with it's general layout.

The addition of time and the click counter is great. Obviously a game like this can't run on a point demerit, so a general timer to track your progress is great.

Sound is obviously lacking. In a game like this it shouldn't go a notice, but I think the option to have some playing would add a little more life to the game. The simple sounds of achievement bells at the completion of a level is great, but some subtle soft music could give some feeling to the game at least.

While I think the game is good, I can't really say it's great. It's not something I can see myself coming back to. It's not how this game was made though, it's the type of puzzle. With this repetitive connection style puzzle I don't think anyone could make it all that interesting. The inclusion of the level editor is nice, but after the 21 levels are down the longitivity completely dies.

It's a great way to kill 10-15 minutes, but that's all this is. A short time killer, not a game.

Still, an interesting 10-15 minutes...